


Cleanup in Aisle 49

by Myffanwy



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Anal Sex, Crack, Craft Store, F/M, Fucking, Hand Jobs, Inappropriate use of Yarn, M/M, Workplace Sex, a fucking delight
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-06-13 15:48:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15367965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myffanwy/pseuds/Myffanwy
Summary: Everyone works at a craft store!A hidden tryst between the district manager and the store manager, finding out where the security camera's don't work, getting in trouble for seriously the stupidest things, having to deal with the most ridiculously dumb customers...and more.Each chapter is a different day of the week, Monday-Sunday!Rated M for language and lots of sex, but may change it to E depending on how much I care if I get fired if my boss sees this.





	1. Monday

**Author's Note:**

> Okay I’ve always wanted to write a craft store AU, and originally it was going to be for another fandom but…I think Symphonia was a better choice overall.  
> So in order to avoid much confusion, here is a kind of hierarchy or cheat sheet for positions and stuff.  
> Umm I guess legally I have to say that these aren’t based on real people or events but I think we all know that’s a goddamn lie and there will really only be like, 2 people who get some of these references but hopefully you guys enjoy!
> 
> Yuan-District Manager  
> Kratos-Store Manager  
> Raine-Manager  
> Regal-Warehouse Manager
> 
> Lloyd-Customer Service/Floor  
> Zelos-Customer Service/Floor  
> Genis-Customer Service/Floor
> 
> Sheena-Cashier  
> Presea-Cashier
> 
> Colette-Kids Craft Director
> 
> Noishe-Framer
> 
> P.S. I know Noishe is a dog and doesn’t speak English but let’s pretend he does and basically he’s a grumpy, middle aged/old lady who hates anyone under 30.  
> Also…When I say “gun” I mean those RF scanners that retail workers use to check prices and stock. I’m not talking about a literal gun jfc I mean I live in Canada that’s not even a concern for us.  
> And finally, the hours:  
> Monday-saturday 9a-9p  
> Sunday 10a-6p

Lloyd stood outside of the front door of the large craft store, it wasn’t cold outside but he hated how awkward it looked, just some guy hanging out outside of a closed retail building. He pushed the silver call button once more when he saw Raine cross the front of the store, keys in hand to let him in.

 

   “Good morning Lloyd.” She muttered, obviously tired. Lloyd walked past her with a polite reply and took big strides to the back of the store. It was rare for him not to be bordering on being late, so he was excited since it meant he might actually be able to eat some breakfast. Pushing in the employee code to the breakroom, he noticed the motion lights weren’t on meaning he was the first non-manager to arrive. Smiling, he dug in his pocket for change and put a few coins into the vending machine, thoroughly stocked with chips and candy. Snagging a bag of salt and vinegar chips from the bottom, he sat in a hard plastic chair and waited.

 

It wasn’t long before he heard the familiar beeping of someone else entering the room, he looked over and saw Noishe pad through the door, giving Lloyd an unimpressed, side-eyed look.  
   “Healthy.” He said sardonically, vaguely nodding at Lloyd’s half eaten bag of chips. Lloyd smirked and rolled his eyes.  
   “Good morning Noishe. How’s it going.”  
Noishe only grunted in reply and got his morning coffee ready.

There was the third and final beep on the door for the morning crew, and Lloyd was surprised to see Zelos…who was normally a fellow floor associate. There wouldn’t be two of them on shift first thing on a Monday, would there?

 

   “Mornin’ bud. How’s it going?” Zelos clasped Lloyd’s shoulder as he walked past, letting it linger just a moment longer than most would consider normal, and Lloyd blushed. He had a small crush for his fellow associate, and although they both flirted rather heavily on shift, mostly for shits and giggles, he had to admit a small part of him wished he was being serious. Noishe only raised an eyebrow from where he stood making his coffee.  
   “If you’re here, who’s on the floor?” Lloyd asked, reaching for the schedule that often lay on the table. Zelos shrugged and stooped to open his locker.  
   “No clue, bud. I was called in last night so I guess that’s who I’m replacing.”  
Admittedly, Lloyd was a bit relieved. He hated covering cashiers. Not that their job was harder, he was just antsy and hated staying in such a confined place with no reprieve.

 

They spent the next 5 minutes before their shift started in relative silence. The occasional snickering from a shared joke from the two floor associates, and a sly quip from Noishe.  
   “I don’t understand why kids stopped reading.” He sniffed from under the cover of his dollar store mystery novel. Lloyd knew well enough to ignore the slights against his age but Zelos was a bit more feisty.  
   “It’s funny how I could literally be reading right now, I mean, my phone does have the capacity for over a hundred books…but I guess it’s easier to just say we’re lazy.”  
Lloyd, not involved in the argument, glanced quickly to Zelos’ screen and almost choked, for no, Zelos was not reading. Oh no, there was some solidly explicit pictures of nude men engaged in filthy, sweaty intercourse on his screen.  
Noishe only made a loud exhale and slapped his book down, signing in for his shift and leaving.  
Lloyd and Zelos shared a quick gaze and laughed as they put on their work vest, signed in, and went to start their day.

 

As they reached the front of the store, Raine waved them over to start their quick morning meeting. She was holding a large clipboard with several sheets of paper.  
   “Good morning you guys, as you can see we are short a cashier, so Lloyd, you’ll be on till today.” She said nonchalantly. Lloyd was automatically livid, HE was scheduled for floor, why wasn’t Zelos made to cover?  
He hunched over, visibly displeased, and Raine’s demeanor softened a bit.  
   “I’m sorry Lloyd, but I need Zelos to do some stocking and in all fairness he is taller…” She tried to justify her decision but Lloyd still felt like it was a stupid reason. He sighed and meandered behind the check out till, thankfully he only had a four hour shift today so it wouldn’t be TOO bad.  
   “Also, we had our mid cashier call in, are you able to stay until 5?”  
Lloyd felt like he was going to lose it, but instead he gritted his teeth and nodded. Zelos gave him a compassionate look.  
Raine checked her schedule and smiled.  
   “Well…we have Presea closing tonight so maybe you’ll get to be on the floor once she comes in, depending on how busy it gets. Colette has a kids class this afternoon so Zelos I’ll ask you to get the supplies properly marked off for that…our customer satisfaction scores are pretty good this week, which is nice because Yuan is coming up on Thursday. Let’s keep up the good work guys.” She closed her speech and went to unlock the front doors for customers and before starting his job, Zelos snuck behind the cashier counter and grabbed Lloyd’s hand softly.  
   “It’ll be okay bud, think of the extra cash…” He smiled, knowing it didn’t really make Lloyd feel better, but it was something at least.  
   “If that doesn’t help, I’m here for most of that at least, I’m here until 3.” That one did make Lloyd feel better, Zelos was basically his only solace for working, and they didn’t get to work together that much.

Raine came back and handed them both headsets to communicate, as well as handed Zelos an RF gun as he left, disappeared behind the tall shelves.

 

The morning dragged on pretty slowly, not many people really wanted to shop on such a promisingly sunny day. He cleaned all of the counters, made sure everything was stocked properly at the front, and restocked the empty bags at the other tills. The transactions were fairly straight forward, a paint set here, scrapbook paper there, the occasional coupon, or lack thereof, which led to a bit of a frustrating encounter.  
  
The lady set down her ball of yarn and knitting needles and pointed to the ball of yarn.  
   “I want my coupon on this.” She said matter of factly. Lloyd merely smiled and nodded.  
   “Don’t worry ma’am, the coupon always comes off the most expensive item.” He scanned the ball of yarn and noticed it was on sale, from $11 to $5.50. A pretty good deal he had to admit. He scanned the needles and noticed they came up to almost $15.  
   “Oh, your yarn is half price today! May I grab your coupon for the needles?”  
The last thing he expected was the lady slamming her fists upon his metal counter. He jumped back as her unholy voice pierced the soft radio music of the retail store.  
   “I said I wanted it ON THE YARN.” She shrieked. Lloyd, hands shaking, pointed to the screen.  
   “Ma’am your yarn is half off…your coupon is only good for 40% so it is far better to use it on the needles.” He said, and heard Zelos’ voice over the headset.

 

    _ _“Lloyd, you okay up there? I can hear her from fine arts.”__ And if Zelos could hear her that said something since Zelos was often lost in his own world when he was on the floor. Lloyd didn’t respond in fear of seeming rude to the customer. He just nodded and asked the lady politely.  
   “Do you…have your coupon? I’ll scan it and I’ll show you the difference if you’d like.”  
Those were…very much the wrong words as the lady stormed off without her yarn or needles, loudly shouting back at him.  
   “I left IT AT HOME.”  
Lloyd reached across the counter, trying in vain to save the situation.  
   “That’s okay! I can do it manually!”  
But instead she gave him the middle finger and left the store without either item.  
Shaken, and knowing his face was quite red, Lloyd re-scanned the items to void them out and he canceled the transaction. There was another lady in line waiting and Lloyd took a deep breath before calling her over.  
  
She was fairly cute, a little older than he was and had a warm smile. Her honey blonde hair was shoulder length and streaked with very faded, bright red that was hardly noticeable. She put the sketchbook and pencils in her hand down and looked at him with inviting blue eyes.  
   “I’m sorry…you did the best you could, some people just can’t be pleased. Don’t worry about her though, you weren’t rude.” She smiled and he felt like he wanted to hug her. Not making eye contact, he blushed and scanned her items.  
   “Thank you…I appreciate that a lot. It…helps…” He said and she laughed.  
   “Oh trust me, I work retail too, I feel you man. We just gotta stick together.” She gave the air a fist and pulled out her wallet.  
Lloyd sneaked her a coupon on her purchase, pay it forward, right?  
She paid and left with another friendly smile, and Lloyd decided that maybe today wouldn’t be the absolute worst.

 

It seemed like eternity before his break was called as Zelos came up to the till to relieve him, he practically ran to the break room, weaving in and out of aisles to avoid detection by customers. It worked this time! He sighed as soon as his back hit the wall of the break room. He grabbed his phone off the counter, he trusted his coworkers enough to not touch it, and immediately dove into reading missed text messages (There was a total of 1, from his dad, to pick up a frame after his shift), and browsing social media for a beloved 15 minutes of solitude and freedom. It seemed to fly by as he noticed the time on the corner of his phone. Instead of putting it back on the table, he silenced it and put it in his pocket. There was a rule that no employee could have their phone on them on shift, but to be fair that was mostly a rule because new employees are all stupid and look at their phones in the areas with security cameras, or they don’t silence them. Lloyd was smart. He kept it on silent and only checked it if he knew it was completely safe, or he pretended to grab stock from the warehouse and hid behind a stack of boxes for a short relief.

 

Making his way back to the front of the store was not as successful as his exit however, as not one, but four customers stopped him for help, each of them fussy about their needs.  
   “I need to find this blue but in a blue blue not this blue.”  
   “This shelf is empty do you have stock in the back?”  
   “When are these coming in? I’ve waited three months!”  
   “I saw this on Pinterest and…”

Lloyd was ready to explode by the end of it. He apologized over the headset to Zelos who simply responded with:  
   “Don’t worry bud, I gotcha all covered! You take your time and help those customers.”  
Goddammit why was he so chill about this?

He thought that was the end of the conversation before he heard Raine’s voice on the headset.  
   ”Customer service is always number one! If Zelos has to stay up at the front for an extra ten minutes, so be it. We gotta take care of our customers.” It sounded almost like she was berating Zelos or something and Lloyd felt the need to defend him.  
   “Yeah I was just being polite and apologizing, Raine.”  
That was…the wrong thing to say as she launched into a solid three minute spiel about the importance of making customers happy.

When Lloyd returned to the front to relieve Zelos, he was treated to a cheeky hand squeezing his butt  
   “Make the customers happy, Lloyd.” He teased, giving a final squeeze before heading off on his own break.  
   ”Are you a customer?” He smirked back.  
   ”Your customer.” Zelos ran a hand through this thick red hair and smiled, turning away finally to head to the back. Lloyd sighed, there weren’t any customers in line so he busied himself with cleaning, only Stopping when someone wanted to pay.

It was only another couple of hours until Presea showed up for her shift, and Raine came up to the front to talk to them.  
   “Lloyd since it’s slow today, take your lunch and when you come back , you can join Zelos on the floor. We have a lot that needs to go back so you two can tackle that together.” Those words made Lloyd almost jittery, not only was he off of cashier duty but he could spend the next two or so hours working with Zelos. What a delight.

He was stopped by Zelos on his way to the back, a quick tug into an aisle and an excited whisper.  
   “Yuan’s coming on Thursday, right?” He asked, the taller man getting giddy. Lloyd raised an eyebrow and nodded.  
   “That’s how I understood it. Why?” Although he knew in his heart of hearts what the reason was that made Zelos so excited.  
   “Because Kratos will obviously be working that day, and so am I.” Zelos purred, making a rude gesture with his hand. Lloyd laughed and exhaled loudly.  
   ”Unfortunately I have that day off so you get all the fun to yourself. Tell me about it though.” The thing was that they theorized that Kratos had a crush on their district manager, Yuan. For all intents and purposes it made sense, Kratos practically kissed his feet where he walked and went into a pretty hilarious tizzy for the days coming up to a visit.

Lloyd was never too worried about Yuan’s visits. The two got along pretty well and Yuan was generally easy to get along with no matter who you were, he just wanted the job to get done and done right. It was Kratos who made things into a much more stressful and bigger deal than they needed to be.

Oh well…at least Kratos didn’t work today, that was tomorrow’s LLoyd’s problem.

As he got into the breakroom, realizing he didn’t bring a lunch due to him not expecting to have a full shift, so he put another couple coins into the vending machine and started snacking on a package of pretzels. It wasn’t long before Noishe joined him, their breaks lining up almost perfectly. Noishe picked up his book and made another rude noise.  
   ”It’s funny how people can sit on their phone all break and not talk to people. What a generation.”

Annoyed, Lloyd put his phone down and said;  
   ”It’s literally no difference than you sitting there reading with your nose in a book.”  
Noishe scoffed and snapped at him.  
   ”You’re right. It’s the same, I’m done talking to you now, this conversation is over.” Lloyd was ready to laugh, and cry in frustration at the same time. What a fucking prick, who did Noishe think he was?  
He spent the rest of his break guiltily looking at his phone, he was actually reading, an online copy of a book that was discontinued and expensive to find a physical copy of, but he still felt guilty reading it like he was being judged by the weird framer.  
He found relief in the fact that he had less than half of his shift left, and that tomorrow was a new day.  
  
Throwing out his pretzal bag, he stuffed his phone back into his pocket and opened the staff room door. Inhaling loudly and ready to finish his shift.


	2. Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Colette loses her shit over terrible parents, Lloyd organizes the kids craft area, and Genis makes a terrifying discovery.

   Lloyd didn’t start his shift opening the next day, he came in for the middle of the afternoon, and once he entered the doors he immediately wanted to go home as the first thing he heard was the bloodcurdling, otherworldly sound of a child shrieking from some corner of the store.  
Passing other customers who were equally as frustrated about the situation, he just gave them a weak smile of empathy.

On his way to the employee room he passed Presea coming back from her break and she patted him on the shoulder, in her monotone voice she greeted him.  
   “Welcome to Hell.”

That didn’t bode well.

Colette on the other hand, was setting up for her craft class, today she had a group of 4-9 year old children painting photo frames. Not normally a tough class, just one that required forethought and cleanup. She had dollops of paint in small trays, sponges instead of brushes, and the table was covered in a disposable plastic drop cloth for easy cleanup. She was quite proud of herself when she had just finished up at the stroke of 3pm as the first few kids started piling into the classroom. Smiling and waving to each of them, she passed a sign in form for their parents to sign as she asked the children their names and generously complimented them on various things.  
   “Nice dress!” She said to one, “Lovely hair!” She said to another. There were about ten children in the class as she finished getting them all signed in and she started telling them about their craft. The children, surprisingly, listened attentively, and soon found her calling for them to grab their brushes as be creative!

What broke her heart was what happened next.

Not a single child was actually painting. Instead, their parents snatched up the foam brushes and started painting designs and pictures on the frame. One mother in particular came up to Colette; a snarky expression on her face.  
   “Uhh, can we get proper brushes?”  
Colette balked at this and replied,  
   “This is really for the children…the foam is easier for them to handle.”  
This was the wrong thing to say as another mom put down her foam brush and made a displeased grunting noise.  
   “Well we want something presentable to bring home, not just some garbage.”  
Colette felt sick to her stomach at those words. The children all sat quietly, some fidgeting with their thumbs, some poking holes in the plastic tablecloth, others getting in trouble from their parent for grabbing the foam brush.

   “I’m sorry but these are the supplies provided for the under 12 classes. I’m sure whatever your children make will be lovely.” She said as in her peripheral vision she saw a mother opening the storage drawers, looking for paint and brushes and Colette was so certain she was going to snap.  
   “Excuse me please, but this is for employees only.” She said in an uncomfortably calm tone.  
   “I just need a better brush.” The mother replied, not closing the drawers.  
   “The foam brushes have been provided for your child. Please sit down and let your child paint.” She was ready to cry at this point, never had she ever been so disrespected before, nor had she ever seen such disregard for a child than watching ten full grown adults painting with tempera paint and cheap, watery acrylics using soft foam brushes and spouncers, on a 4x6 frame in a class meant for children ages 4 to 9.

Thankfully the class was only an hour long, and most parents were done by the half hour mark, the last part of the class meant to dry the frames. While they were drying, Colette passed out some small pieces of card stock that were sized for the frames, along with some crayons and markers for the kids to make a picture to put in the frame.  
Although the children had been allowed to draw their own picture, she was shocked to overhear a conversation had by three of the parents to the extent of:  
   “Oh no, we’ll just replace it with a real picture or something, but honestly it’ll be garbage in a couple days anyway.”

It was another half hour, the kids were sent home with ‘their’ newly painted frames and pictures. Once the last kid and parent left the classroom she shut the door, sat at the filthy table, held her head in her hands and gave a shuddering sigh, almost tempting tears to fall from her eyes. But no, she was stronger than that. She did, however, saunter and take her time cleaning up, reflecting on how terrible those parents were to their children, and how entitled they acted not only towards them but to her as well.

Tomorrow was a new day, she told herself, and as soon as she cleaned up the classroom she went on her break with only a hushed comment over the headset.

In the meantime, Raine gave Lloyd a task to do, which was great since he required a little bit of direction sometimes and got overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work that generally always needed to be done. Today he was in charge of organizing the kids section. Ten aisles of the store’s total of 96, but these were generally always a travesty so he wasn’t surprised. Today, however, he was determined to make them look perfect. He grabbed a cart, two baskets, and along the back wall was an entire eight foot section of plastic animal figures. They were all in the wrong spot so he went around and dumped them all in the cart and spent a solid, uninterrupted hour sorting them. It was calming, almost, until a mother and her two kids came up to him and she pointed at the buggy and said,  
   “Stay here, I’m going to do some shopping and I’ll come back when I’m done.”  
Almost immediately the kids dove into Lloyd’s buggy of animals and started playing with them, taking them off the shelves and making a mess. Lloyd stared at them in complete disbelief for a solid minute until he spoke up.  
   “Hey guys…this isn’t a play area, I’m cleaning these. Please put those back in the cart.” One of the kids seemed to side eye him rudely, but the other plopped their animals back into the cart…and then proceeded to take the animals off the freshly organized shelves and dump those into the cart as well.  
  
Lloyd was baffled but he spotted their mother just a couple aisles over so he told them to stick with her and sent them away before starting his task from almost scratch again.

Another hour went by and he was working so hard he had almost completed his task, he only had half a basket left when Raine called him over the headset and told him to go for his break. It was only a fifteen minute break today, and it went by unbelievably fast. By the time he got back, he had less than half of his shift left, which excited him. He turned down the kids aisle to finish his animal task, but regretted it as soon as he saw the chaos and absolutely destruction that had happened.  
  
Almost all of the dinosaurs were on the ground in a rather large, occult looking circle, the sea creatures were all flipped upside down and half were in the farm animal section. The basket he had the remaining animals in was gone, but the animals had been dumped into a pile on the floor.

He pressed the talk button on the headset,  
   ”I quit.” He croaked, voice cracking as he turned on his heel and walked away from the aisle. He didn’t realize Raine was coming up the aisle and had seen the chaos that was once his almost completed animal section. She put her hand on his shoulder and sighed.

   “I know…if you can try to get it fixed before you go, I’ll make sure it gets done tonight.” He thanked her and set back to work…he knew however, it would not be done tonight, and that was fine.

Lloyd was just leaving for the day when he heard an exasperated sigh over the headset. Cocking his head, he listened to Genis complain loudly.  
   “Guys…I’m not too sure how to say this but umm, could I get some help in the bathroom?”

He thanked whatever Gods were listening that he was on his way home, but slowed his step so he could continue listening to the drama. Of course there was chatter over the headset but eventually everyone calmed down.  
   “What kind of problem, Genis?” Raine asked in an unsettingly calm voice.  
   “A big…poop problem.”

And the chatter went crazy over the headset, Lloyd let out a loud laugh as he walked into the managers office to hand in his gun and radio for the day to Raine, who sat in her large manager’s chair and stared off into space.  
   “I hate this place” She muttered to no one in particular and Lloyd gave her a two fingered salute.  
   “I feel that on a spiritual level, Raine. I’ll uhh, see you tomorrow. Good luck.”

Presea, who was on till at the moment, heard the entire conversation between Genis and Raine about the toilet situation and suddenly felt very grateful that she was on till for the day, for it meant she was unable to leave her post and deal with such a gross problem. Smiling, she knew at least her day would end alright.

Until she heard Raine’s voice on the headset.  
   ”So we have one toilet out of commission until further notice. Kratos is in all day tomorrow to prepare for Yuan’s visit so uhh…guys I apologize in advance this wasn’t supposed to happen. We’ll see if we can cover it up for now but can I just get you guys to pretend you don’t know about it?”

Tomorrow was not going to be a good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love my job. :)


	3. Wednesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fuck I'm sorry-not-sorry, this is kind of a huge running joke at work and there was no possible way it wasn't getting included in the fic. :)
> 
> Also, yes, sex is in this chapter. It's awful. :)

Working was Kratos was never ideal. He never really did his fair share of work, he was never very pleasant to talk to and he tended to contradict himself a lot. This, however, was all heightened by about fourty-fold whenever they were expecting a visit from Yuan. Most of the employees actually really liked Yuan and got along with the man rather well; he was friendly, constructive and personable. What they didn’t like was how Kratos stressed everyone else out by making huge deals about even the smallest things, and ran around barking orders, not caring who heard him, and putting everyone completely on edge.

Normally Kratos came in early in the morning to do stock and he left by the evening.  
Today however, not only did he come in extra early, he was also there at closing, meaning no one on shift that day got a reprieve from his horrible attitude.

“This aisle needs to be recovered.”  
“This aisle needs to be cleaned.”  
“CUSTOMER SERVICE IS NUMBER ONE.”  
“Someone go down the party supply aisle and do a spotless recovery!”

Someone was going to kill him. Raine swore it would be her.

Lloyd, Sheena and Raine were the closing staff tonight, Kratos had been driving them all crazy with his demands so by the last ten minutes of their shift they all wanted nothing more than to go home and chug a few beers. However, it was Raine who noticed Yuan saunter in first.  
“He’s here! I repeat, Yuan is here!” She knew Kratos had a radio on him so she refrained from cursing, although it took a conscious effort. Almost immediately, Kratos appeared from some unknown corner of the store looking almost flush, and greeted Yuan, taking him into the office.

“Why is he here so early?” Lloyd asked Raine in person, not wanting to risk Kratos overhearing and lecturing him. Raine shrugged and shook her head.  
“I’m not sure but I hope it doesn’t mean we have to stay late.”

Thankfully it didn’t, and at 9:30 Kratos said goodbye to them all, Yuan silently standing beside him looking pensive.  
Kratos, rubbing the back of his neck, looked at his superior and waited for him to speak first. He didn’t have to wait long as Yuan turned around and walked towards the warehouse.  
“Let’s make sure it’s ready for receiving the truck delivery tomorrow.” He said frankly, and Kratos frowned. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue, but for the second week in a row he had failed to ensure all product made it to shelves, mostly due to it being seasonal stock, but he inhaled deeply and admitted the truth.  
“Sorry Yuan, you probably won’t like it.”  
Yuan chuckled lowly and shook his head.  
“Kratos, you seem to think the worst of everything. You do know I am rather fond of this store, right? You hired excellent staff, and even when I show up early the store looks good for what is understandably a retail store. I’ve been in this business a long time, I know not every mess is failure on the employee’s fault. Customers are dicks.” He grinned and Kratos immediately felt the blood rush from his face. Yuan could read him like a wide open, large print book.  
“I don’t want them to excuse lack of care though…” Kratos retorted as they reached the large swinging doors to the warehouse. Yuan laid a careful hand on them and gave the store manager an odd look.  
“And what makes you think they don’t care? I’ve seen the way your staff works, even on your days off, I’ve talked to almost all of them one on one and yes, sometimes things slip through the cracks but I’d say you’re putting more pressure on them than they probably need. You gotta learn to lighten up a bit…” As he said his last sentence, he moved one of his hands from the door onto Kratos’ shoulder. Kratos let out a visible shudder at the touch, which made Yuan grin.

“You seen tense…do I stress you out?” He whispered, voice slightly more husky than before as his grip on Kratos’ shoulder tightened, fingers against tight muscle. Kratos was at a loss for the right words so he nodded and ended up admitting to his boss,  
“A…a little, yeah. I just want to make sure everything’s perfect for you when you show up. This store is everything, it’s all I have.” He muttered and Yuan placed his other around firmly on his forearm.  
“It’s not. If you think it is, I think I’ve made a grave misunderstanding of our workplace relationship.” Yuan stated, and didn’t let Kratos respond before leaning forward and placing a chaste kiss on the prudish manager. Kratos pulled away quickly, eyes wide and heart beating rapidly, he double checked quickly what aisle they were in and that there weren’t any cameras on them before he bit his bottom lip hard and pulled Yuan closer to him, chest to chest, one leg in between Yuan’s, bringing their lips together again, letting go of his own lip and letting his tongue slide against Yuan’s, a surprising move but it paid off as Yuan parted his lips with a moan and wrapped his arms around the very slightly younger man, fingers digging into the back of his shirt, threatening to tear the fabric. Kratos noticed the feeling and let go of Yuan, bringing his hands up in between them to unbutton the shirt before Yuan ripped it off of his back. Breaking their kiss and panting heavily, Kratos barely had time to undo all of the buttons before Yuan’s deft fingers lifted the ends of the shirt and tugged it over his head.

Once that was removed, he let his hands trail down Kratos’ chest, lingering briefly on his pliable pink nipples, as his hands trailed further the district manager bent his head and sucked at his nipples, eliciting a loud and hearty groan from the younger man. Yuan quickly unbuckled the pleather belt on Kratos’ hips, pushing his pants, along with boxers, to his ankles, noticing a plump erection springing to life, rubbing against Yuan’s chest.  
Kratos’ knees were threatening to buckle as Yuan stopped suckling his nipples and kissed a heated trail down his abdomen, stopping at the base of his penis. All he heard from the younger manager was a long string of soft moans and buzz words like ‘please’ and Yuan’s own name.

Furrowing his brow, Yuan stood up and Kratos was immediately protesting, but Yuan simply shushed him and turned to the shelf. It was all foam rolls and small scraps of fabric, however the entire wall was covered in yarn, so he grabbed armfulls off the rack and dumped them onto the floor, no rhyme or reason. He had emptied over 6 feet of shelving before going back to Kratos and pushing him roughly into the enormous pile of acrylic yarn. Kratos let out a loud shout as he fell, expecting his face to hit the flooring, but it was far from it as he rolled onto his back and watched Yuan, satisfied with his nest, undo his own shirt and take off his pants. He had already discarded his shoes, unbeknownst to the younger manager, and as he knelt down between Kratos’ legs, he sprinkled light kisses along his kneecaps, thighs and belly.

“This store may mean a lot to you, but you certainly mean a lot to me, Kratos. Therefore, I don’t think it’s fair that you consider this building your ‘everything’ when you obviously put in a lot of stress and time to make it perfect for me.”  
Kratos blushed a deep crimson and looked away from the district manager. Yes he had had a boner for the man the moment he started working for the company, but how did he know? Yuan didn’t give him a chance to ponder it any further before he growled at him.  
“Let me show you just how much I appreciate you and your staff, okay?” Before he clawed at Kratos’ hips, holding him down firmly in the yarn pile, and dropped his head, taking Kratos’ whole dick in his mouth. Kratos’ subsequent moan was so loud it echoed throughout the entire building, making Yuan hum in approval. The vibration sent down his dick only resulted in more moans from the other man. Feeling Kratos’ balls tighten with the threat of release, Yuan sat up, detaching himself from Kratos, wiping his mouth with a lewd grin.

“I believe…there may be a better way for me to show you…” He trailed off before grabbing Kratos’ arms, pulling him up into a sitting position. It took a bit of guidance but he got him onto his belly wordlessly, the soft yarn against his dick felt so good, but he was distracted quickly by Yuan pulling his head back and slipping two fingers into his mouth. He accepted them without complaint and sucked them, earning himself moans of encouragement from his superior. It wasn’t long before Yuan extracted his fingers and felt them, cold and wet against his entrance.  
“Brace yourself; bite into a ball of yarn if you need to…I’m sorry but I didn’t anticipate taking you like this.” Yuan apologized before sliding a finger into Kratos, who groaned loudly as Yuan had no remorse; thrusting the digit in and out of him roughly, by the tenth thrust he added the second finger with minor protest from Kratos, who felt his ass burning from the careless stretching. Yuan stroked his back and cooed.  
“I’m sorry my pet, but you’re just too precious. I couldn’t wait. You’ll thank me though, I promise.” Kratos nodded in understanding and gasped out.  
“I know…I…I know…just…gah…I want to feel you, Yuan, all of you.”  
That made Yuan’s dick impressively hard as he stroked himself quickly to spread the precum across the whole length. He moaned and took his fingers out of Kratos, using his hands to spread his ass cheeks as he lined himself up with his entrance.

“This might hurt…”  
“I know…I love you.”  
Yuan’s dick twitched at those words and he couldn’t control himself any longer. He let the tip of his dick slide into Kratos, earning himself muffled groaning as the younger man bit into a ball of yarn. Now inside, Yuan moved his hands to keep petting Kratos’ back, hushing him and whispering words of praise and encouragement; sweet nothings, as he thrust the whole hilt of his dick into the other manager. When he was balls deep, he secured his hands on Kratos’ hips and asked him.  
“Are you okay?”  
Kratos lifted his head and turned it to the side so he could see the man who was currently inside of him.  
“Yeah…I want…I want to make you happy, I want you to possess me.” He moaned and Yuan didn’t need any more encouragement as he snapped his hips back and thrust into Kratos, pulling his hips back to meet him as far as he could go inside in a perfect rhythm. Kratos’ moans got higher and higher pitched as he slid one arm down under the yarn to grab his own neglected dick, and stroked in time to Yuan’s thrusts.

Yuan was not one to neglect however as during his thrusts he kept praising Kratos.  
”I love you.” “I love your voice.” “You’re so beautiful.” “I love you.”  
With every thrust he kept going, piling on the sentiments and praise until not only Kratos’ dick could  
take the heat but neither could his ego as he let Yuan know,  
”I’m…I’m going to…cum…Yuan…” He moaned and Yuan immediately dropped down on top of him,  
deepening his thrusts, digging his fingernails harder into his flesh, biting the space between his neck  
and shoulder he growled deeply.  
”Do it, come for me Kratos!”

Kratos didn’t need any further instruction as he yelled out in ecstasy; his world turning white as his hot seed coated his hand, belly, and the balls of yarn surrounding him.  
Yuan, hearing Kratos’ cries of completion, came without warning, biting harder on Kratos’ neck. His thrusts became more erratic as they slowed down. Both men heaving, trying to catch their breath as they sunk deeper into the yarn pile, completely spent.

Kratos was the first to turn to his partner, face entirely red and eyes still glazed over from his climax.  
”Do you mean those things you said?” He asked his superior, who only chuckled and placed a  
hand on top of his head.  
”Of course, Kratos. Come here, trust me, I meant every word.” He yawn as Kratos nuzzled closer  
to him, head on his chest, arm wrapped around his waist. They drifted off to sleep in their extremely  
dirty pile or yarn.

 

******

What neither of them had remembered was that Thursday was delivery day, which meant Regal arrived at 3am to get the warehouse ready to receive waves of product.

Neither of them had remembered until Regal walked in, waking them up with the loudest shout of “Oh FUCK no” either of them had ever heard.


	4. Thursday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay so like, everything in these chapters legitimately has happened at my workplace ((I mean, with ONE exception but like, we all assume it's happened cause literally our DM and GM are like...fucking bros man.)) like, literally ALL of these customers and dialogue has happened at some point or another.
> 
> Also, RIP Zelos, those 3am's are brutal and also my real schedule. :) I'm pretty sure my boss read this at some point and decided to torture me so yeah. My new bedtime is like, 6pm and I hate my life.
> 
> RIP ME.

Regal didn’t tell a soul what he had seen coming into work. Instead, he had very sternly informed Kratos that he was in charge of the truck delivery this morning and he turned around and went home.

Kratos didn’t even complain, he was far too embarrassed. Yuan on the other hand was casually pulling on his pants and leaning against the back wall, a grin plastered on his face. Kratos couldn’t actually look him in the eyes. Quickly changing he ran a hand against the back of his head and started to say  
”That’s…that wasn’t…”  
Before he could finish, Yuan chuckled loudly and clicked his tongue.  
”Yes it was, and it’s fine. We’ll unload the truck and get the work done. It’s the least we could do for scarring the poor guy.”

Kratos kept his mouth shut and went to help.

***  
Once they had the truck unloaded they both left the store, Yuan since his inspection was technically over, and Kratos out of complete shame.

Raine opened the store to find the place empty, and although she wasn’t complaining, it seemed weird. When she went into the office, she found a note from Kratos that read:  
”Unloaded truck. Regal went home sick so I had to leave too. Sorry.”

Raine sighed heavily. She went to go walk back out of the office, as it was against company policy for only one person to be in the store; there had to be at least two, and the next person wasn’t scheduled until opening. The least he could have done was text her or something.  
After locking the doors up again, she walked over to Starbucks and played some mobile games before watching Lloyd and Zelos pull into the parking lot. She was surprised to see Lloyd there so early, but then again, clo-pens weren’t exactly uncommon. She threw out her empty cup and walked across the parking lot back to their store and the two boys waved at her as she came up.

”Have you heard from Yuan? What did he say?” Lloyd asked, praying that Yuan wasn’t coming back today. Raine shrugged and opened the door.

”I don’t know, he didn’t leave any note about that, so I’m sure Kratos will fill us all in later. Are you two my only openers? Where’s Colette?” She looked around, usually Zelos gave Lloyd a ride if they had a same shift, but they were always borderline late so it was unusual for the more mature girl to be near their time.

“I don’t know, but we’re pretty early…Zelos wanted to stop by and grab breakfast before work so we wanted to make sure we had enough time.” Lloyd held up a fast food bag and Raine was connecting the dots in her head. Checking her phone she was stunned. They were almost half an hour early. Smiling, she turned towards the office, assuming miracles could indeed happen.

***

When they reached the back, Lloyd set down the bag of breakfast sandwiches as Zelos pulled out a couple cans of coke from his backpack…as Lloyd had drank BOTH of their coffees in the car on the way to work.  
They sat in comfortable silence; both playing the same game on their phone and sending each other virtual gifts. Zelos suddenly sat up fully and went over to the work computer.  
”It’s Thursday, right?”  
Lloyd nodded.  
“Did the schedule come out yesterday?”  
Lloyd shook his head--his mouth full of sandwich.

Zelos quickly typed in his username and password for the work computer. Several seconds of silence before Lloyd jumped at the loud “FUCK” that came from that side of the room.

“What’s wrong?” He swallowed and asked. Zelos exhaled loudly in frustration.  
“For some reason they have me at 8 am ALL next week.”

Lloyd smirked.

“Why’s that?”  
“I think Sheena is on vacation and they need someone to do morning stuff.”  
“She usually starts at 9 though, right?”  
“Yeah but it’s coming closer to Christmas, so she was actually talking about that last week. I didn’t realize they would just substitute her for me when that week came though.”

Lloyd laughed at his friend and patted his back, almost mockingly.

“Good luck with that, bud.” He chuckled, using his friends favourite word. All he got in response was a light thump on the arm as Zelos sat back down and finished his food.

***

“Good morning everyone.” Raine announced right at 9am as the store opened and her three openers stood in front of her.  
“As you all know, peak season is coming up and we need to hire some new people. It’s getting busier by the day and it’s almost time to open with 5 people instead of 3.”

“So what you mean is we need 5 but we’ll get 4, right?” Zelos chimed in, making all of them, even Raine, laugh.  
“Well if Kratos is in charge of the schedule again, yes. Yes you’re right. Anyway, if anyone comes in with a resume, call me over immediately and I’ll talk to them.”  
Everyone nodded as Raine continued on about sales and customer scores.  
“And to wrap it up, no, I didn’t hear anything about Yuan’s visit, so I’m assuming that’s a good thing. Kratos will be on later today so I’ll ask him then, but for now we’re going with no news is good news. Anyway that’s it from me, let’s have a good day. Oh, and Zelos, come to the office quickly, I want to ask you about the schedule for next week.”

Zelos really hoped she would change her mind on the 8am shifts.

They walked into the office together and she shut the door. He flinched, that wasn’t normally a good sign.

“You saw the 8ams, right?”  
He nodded.  
“Are you okay with that?”  
He shrugged, “I am, if it’s to cover Sheena…”  
Raine smiled and nodded. “It is, except…we’re expecting our big Christmas truck. Can you do 3am Monday and 5am the rest of the week?”

Fuck.

But, being the brown nosing son of a bitch he was, he smiled and nodded, although making sure to inhale through his teeth and sigh.  
”Yeah..for you guys…I can do it for a week.”  
It was uncharacteristic of Raine to be so delighted but she promised to buy him a coffee and thanked him for being so willing to help.

“Anything for the team, Boss.” He left the office and immediately ran over to the side of the floor that Lloyd was on to tell him the shitty news.

“That’s a disgusting hour, I’ve done those before and they suck! I’m sorry.” Lloyd frowned, patting Zelos on the shoulder. As he did so, an elderly customer came up to them and butted in between them.

“Excuse me! I need help!” She half-yelled, a frown clearly visible on her face. Zelos gave her his biggest customer service smile and half bowed towards her.

”Absolutely Ma’am, how can I help?” Lloyd could almost smell his brown-nosing, but that’s how things worked in retail.

“I need a BIG sheet of Styrofoam.” She spread her arms to enunciate her point and LLoyd had to stiffle his laugh.

”Of course! Let me take you over to aisle 95, it’s right across from the hot glue guns.” Zelos didn’t take two steps ahead of her before the lady raised her voice again.

”What the -FUCK- is a hot glue gun?” She frowned, crossing her arms.

Zelos couldn’t hold it in. He laughed stiffly once, and then rubbed the back of his head with his hand.

”I…I’m not sure how serious you’re being, Ma’am, but a, a uhh, hot glue gun is…well it’s a gun for…hot…glue…” Zelos baited his breath just in case she was actually serious, although he wasn’t too sure, weirder things have happened.

They walked into the Styrofoam aisle and just to be sure, he pointed out the glue guns, holding one out to her.

”Just…just in case you were serious, this is a glue gun, and the glue sticks here, go in the end and it melts in this chamber. Very useful if you’re planning on sticking things to your foam.” He hesitated, but the elderly lady just nodded and took the gun.

”Well go fucking figure…I just tape things!”

He walked away before she said anything else.

In the meantime, Lloyd was cleaning up the bead aisle, which was, as usual, a fucking disaster, RIP Lloyd.

He was just starting to get into the groove when he noticed in the corner of his eye a lady who had been there for several minutes without saying a word. He figured it was time to showcase his good customer service skills and ask her if she needed any help.

”Hi there! Is there anything I can help you find?”

She shrugged and raised a hand to her chin.  
”I’m just looking for something to represent physic…you know, like a third eye or something. Oh! And also cats. It’s for a memorial piece.”

Lloyd frowned, of course he’d get the sad topic.  
“Not a problem, I am sorry for your loss… I see you’ve already seen our pawprint charm. How about this one with the eye in the palm?” Lloyd admittedly didn’t know anything about being psychic, but it seemed to go well.  
They spent several minutes looking for items while she rambled:

”I made this big cement table. I have some stones to decorate it, but I need something like rocks or shells or something natural, but I also need psychic. I have a centerpiece of cats holding hands around a candle holder but I want something natural in it. Do you guys have any rocks?”  
This was weird, but still not the weirdest thing Lloyd had ever heard, so they walked over to the stone and shell aisle where they spent a half hour looking and analyzing stones.

Lloyd wanted to pull his hair out, until the lady stopped and asked him, while holding a large flat stone.

”I don’t think this really symbolizes cats very well.”

”Umm…no, but it is natural.”

”Well this memorial is for my cat. I want him to be happy with it.”

Lloyd felt a small twinge in his gut. Losing a pet wasn’t easy, and for this woman it was probably her only comfort.

”I’m so sorry ma’am…may I ask, if it isn’t too painful, how long ago did he pass away?” He felt bad for getting impatient with her, even though he thought he hid it rather well.

”Oh…in 1992. But he just lost the last of his 9 lives and since I was his first, he can now communicate with me through the spirit realm. I wanted to make this memorial piece to make him happy and keep him with me.”

Zelos had been walking by the aisle at the time and, wide-eyed he glared at Lloyd while covering his mouth, trying not to laugh. Lloyd didn’t want the lady to turn around and see that, so he ignored him and continued for another half hour looking at rocks while she rambled.

Finally, after an hour with her, she finally said.

”Do you have any solar powered lights?”

Lloyd nodded and said:  
”Normally, no, they are seasonal. We may have gotten some in though for the summer. Lets go take a look.” He took her all the way to the lighting aisle when she got irate and laughed.

”No hon, these are all battery powered. I want solar. You know, powered by the sun.”

He heard Zelos over the headset:

”You…you just got mansplained to by a freaking old lady!”

Lloyd grit his teeth and wondered where the heck he was hiding where he could hear all of that.

Thankfully it was the end of his shift in 5 minutes, he had wasted over half of it with this lady so he felt he deserved a break.


End file.
